Third wave feminism is a new discourse for understanding and framing gender relations that arose out of a critique of thè second wave. Four major perspectives that share a common focus on difference, deconstruction and decentering con tribu ted to this new discourse: intersectionality theory; postmodernism/poststructuralism; feminist postcolonial theory; and the agenda of young feminists. A Marxist-feminist perspective grounds this new perspective in social and historical conditions and makes possible a materialist analysis of thè rise of the third wave.